Forces for Good

...a book Paul Brooks, Executive Director of Project HOPE UK, gave me when my assignment commenced. Forces for Good talks about the practices of high-impact nonprofits. Nurturing nonprofit networks and collaborating with other NGOs on common interests maximizes resources and increases efficiency. Uncovering the interests of corporates instead of just accepting a grant and communicating with the local government on what their goals and initiatives are for their municipalities and how they link with those objectives of the nonprofit are strategic measures to ensure success. Here are some of our own examples of  partnerships at Project HOPE UK:

 Project HOPE UK supports Human Youth Coordinators of Humana in a Sports Day in Munsieville while GSK South Africa Consumer Division contributes Lucozade for the event. The children of Munsieville enjoy a day of competitive soccer games and receive recycling messages to help keep Munsieville clean.

Eniger Company donates two brick-making machines from Wilkinson Brick Making Machines. Joe Wilkinson offers training to the Entrepreneur Women of Mayibuye and Councilor Paul recommends that if the bricks are of good quality, the government should buy the bricks to build Extension 5.

The Children's Tshepo Festival held on December 2nd had support from GlaxoSmithKline South Africa Consumer Division. The Mobile Dental Clinic was present to instruct children on oral care and lots of Aquafresh was given away.

Lebogang Luvuno heads GSK's Corporate Responsibility Department and has consistently supported the efforts of Project HOPE UK in Munsieville. She works with Bianca Lee, who is on a two year Emerging Markets rotation here in GSK South Africa from New Jersey! These are great ladies!

Lucas Radebe happens to be a spokesperson for Aquafresh and has a strong relationship with GSK SA. He is a famous South African soccer player and was present at the festival. He addressed the kids on how important it is to have a dream about your future and to never give up on that dream. How working hard and being committed is very important to accomplishing your dreams.



Lucas is pictured here from left to right with Steven (Sports Hub Leaders), Abram, Sam, and Charles.

Steven, Abram, and Charles are some really solid teenagers from Munsieville who I have empowered to assist me in implementing a sports codes program in the Munsieville schools on a consistent basis. So far they have demonstrated commitment, consistency, respect, and effort.



The Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge (my current residence and "family" that looks after me) supplied 1000 hot dogs that community members such as Ivy, and Walter, a waiter at Heritage Lodge, as well as some US and UK GSK employees cooked and distributed to all the children at the festival.

"Scoop" Pienaar from Heritage was Father Christmas to bring added joy to the children that day.

My initial contact with the West Rand District Transport and Land Use Management Department to educate them on the initiatives Project HOPE UK was implementing in Munsieville led to a partnership of Project HOPE UK and GSK Employee Health and Safety Teams from the US and UK to execute an initiative on this department's agenda. The campaign is called Basa Njengo Magogo ("make a fire like an old lady") and it is to educate communities in the informal settlements on a safer, healthier way to create fire where the smoke inhalation is less.

Joe Baleka, who works for the Paraffin Safety Association, is teaching the community how to make this fire. Joe addressed the GSK Health and Safety Team, as well as myself, on statistics about paraffin accidents in the shacks and how to best avoid such incidences.

The GSK Health and Safety Team are very passionate about making a difference in regards to paraffin safety and  have partnered with Joe on effective ways to increase awareness around the dangers.

The partnership between Project HOPE UK and GlaxoSmithKline US and UK Employee Health and Safety Team is very strong. These folks were here for two weeks and their passion and determination to make a difference in the lives of the children of Munsieville is commendable. They made things happen in the short time they were here and they will continue to build on what they started here.

During the interview process for the Thoughtful Path Leadership Academy, a question I posed to each applicant was, "What does leadership mean to you?" Given the varying answers I thought it was a good idea to provoke some thought and expand on their definition of leadership by facilitating a workshop. I need to give a shout out to my friend, Bryn, who has done extensive research in leadership and has a consulting business around this important topic. He offered his insight on my approach and format to the workshop.  Thank you, Bryn!

In addition, the Health and Safety Team, specifically Candy and Tim, delivered health messages following my Leadership Academy Workshop held last Thursday. It was a great tie in to the leadership discussion around how the responsibilities of a leader can be taxing on one's health and so it is important to be aware of how you are feeling, physically, emotionally, and spiritually on a regular basis.

Whether you are an employee of a nonprofit organization, a philanthropist, business executive, movie star or sports figure, board member, small business owner, government official, or volunteer, working together towards common goals for the good of a community maximizes resources, eliminates redundancy, increases efficiency, and ensures success in arriving at a goal faster and in a more sustainable way.

Through these wonderful partnerships, hopefully lasting, the most important thing that Project HOPE UK will never lose sight of, is that these efforts are for the children; to ensure they have a healthy and safe environment to flourish into confident, self-sustaining, contributing adults.